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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Cooking Rut

I often find myself in a cooking rut. You know, when you are so consumed in the everyday activities and events of life that you end up eating the same things from week to week. Basically because it is easy, fast, doesn't require too much thought or prep work. The kitchen version of autopilot. Sound familiar?

Since it is the week after Thanksgiving, and we have leftover turkey, I thought this week would be different. I thought this week had great potential to offer new healthy, dishes. Last night I thought I would prepare a turkey soup with vegetables. I was off to a great start: Veggies, turkey, low sodium stock! Then my six-year old looks at it and asks if we can put in some macaroni noodles. I agree to a few noodles. Next she says it would be better with corn because she likes corn and is sure she would live to eat the soup if it had corn. I add the corn. At this point I had also been listening to my youngest cry because she is an overachiever and is cutting four teeth at one time. Needless to say, I needed to get dinner over with. I was quickly running out of go-go juice and patience. We sit down to eat; my oldest declares she doesn't like it. Asks what else she can have.

From all of this I learned: 1. If we are truly going to eat healthier, I need to have a better plan. We need to have a menu and stick to it.
2. If I want my oldest to eat it, she needs to be more involved in the process. I think she needs to help with the planning and preparing of the meal. I think this will help us to avoid some of our "But, I don't like it" issues.
3. I cannot expect miracles. It is not going to be easy to get my family on board. I need to take a more gradual approach and make small, subtle changes.